Tony-OH

I'd piggy back Akin with Lopez. Lopez for 3-5 innings but never letting batters face him more than 2 PAs and then Akin for 1 time through the order, maybe up to three innings if he's throwing well. Then go to the pen.

The fact that the Orioles continue to use Lopez as a starter is mind-numbing. His numbers scream at you that he's a one time through the order guy, maybe you can get through 2PAs if the stuff is good, but he should not face batters a 3rd time through, yet Hyde does it pretty often. I thought Lopez is exactly the kind of guy you find and then change his role and you get value, but the Orioles are intent on keeping him in this misfit role.

The lineup is pretty awful right now.

There are many in the organization, including Elias before 2020 (maybe still but I had the conversation with him after the 2019 season) who liked Akin better than Kremer and Lowther. I'm the one who has never been too high on Akin and think he'll be better in relief, but he must improve his command because he makes too many mistakes in the middle of the plate.

I don't trust a single pitcher in that bullpen outside of Valdez, but I trust all of them more than Lopez pitching the 3rd time through the order.

That was a Duquette move.

It's not the innings, it's the PAs against. Look at what they do the 3rd time through the order against him. But Hyde keeps running him through that 3rd PA.

Hyde's insistent of keeping Lopez in until he gets hammered borders on criminal.

Yeah, my post got prematurely posted while I was typing. This post is all about their ability to identify and acquire major league ready talent through their analytics. Minor league and amateur scouting will take years to determine how good they are at that.

What do you mean they were undervalued by "us?" Means wen into the offseason and learned that changeup. He also increased his velocity by going to a performance place, not because of something the organization did for him. I know he's tangibly given some credit to Holt for the changeup, but I don't think the Orioles under Elias suddenly developed Means. As for Mullins, he was always a prospect. it wasn't until he finally decided on his own to give up switch hitting did he become an everyday guy. When the organization tried to makes some changes with him two years ago you saw how awful he was. Elias felt so good about him he sent him all the way to AA in 2019. Over his last 109 PAs, Mullins is slashing .242/.330/.400/.730. Not terrible, but let's not start calling him a success story of the regime.

When Elias took over, we were told Sig's analytics would be able to identify players in other organizations that would be undervalued and acquired. Apparently, the rest of the league are doing the same things so it's no longer an advantage and the guys they have found have generally failed. If you want to know why the team has completely stunk while trying to rebuild, it's been the absolute failure of Elias/Sig to acquire players that can help at the major league level through undervalued players. While we still don't know about the talent received in trades or the drafting ability of Sig/Elias, what we do know is they get an F at acquiring major league ready talent that is under utilized by other organizations. Rio Ruiz: Fail Wojo: Fail Severino; Backup catcher at best on a good team Valiaka: Utility guy at best Andrew Velazquez: fail Martin: .581 OPS, now an injury prone AAA guy. Eshelmen: Long guy/AAA guy Fulmer: Gave him quick look, gave up on him, quickly picked up and now pitching in Red bullpen with a 4.19 FIP Urias: Fail Alberto: back up guy or lower division starter Armstrong: Middle relief at best Plutko: long guy innings eater used poorly by coaching staff Lakins: Middle reliever Sulser: middle reliever Valdez: Did they find him because of analytics or got lucky, not sure? Broxton: fail Aaron Brooks: Fail

Add in the regression of Wells at AAA too. Watching the pitching prospects get their shots and crap the bed has really been disappointing. Mountcastle's regression into a hackamatic guy who can't play LF has been depressing as well.

Exactly. if the team stunk but the young players were doing well at the major league level, or at least showing promise, I'd feel better. But you can't keep putting embarrassing teams on the field and the major league level then promote you prospects and watch them fail or at least watch them not improve. Elias may need to sacrifice an unproductive coaching staff here soon or the heat will start on him. My biggest concern is the poor performance of Mountcastle, Stewart, Kremer, Zimmermann, and Akin at the major league level this year. How can they all be bad? Why just give the Sisco the starting catching job for a month? If he still stinks, send him back to the minors of DFA him. Why is Lopez still starting? Why does Hyde continue to try and push him past where he's effective? the team is not particularly strong on fundamentals and Hyde, who once was honest with the media, has now become a media cliché machine. It's just all a mess right now. The apathy of the fan base is at an all-time high because the Orioles refuse to put out even a decent team during this rebuild. Last year it appeared to be a little bit of a turning point with Mountcastle doing well and the team playing decent for 30 games, but it's pretty clear this team was the team that collapsed over the last 30 games and Mountcastle's approach has completely regressed. I really think Elias is going to have to make a splash international signing on a nearly ready or ready superstar, and he's going to have to be aggressive with his top prospects and get them to the show as quickly as possible because right now, I don't see how this team is even decent next year or even in two years without some major signings and major jumps in talent status. When you get to pick 1-1 and 1-2, and you 1-1 guy is struggling a bit in AA, and no one has seen your 1-2 guy, it doesn't make people think this organization is going to be turning things around anytime soon. Just the cold hard facts.

Watching the lack of improvement by Kremer and Akin makes me more and more concerned about the Orioles current developmental staff at the high levels. Add in the inconsistencies of Zimmermann, and we have not seen any of them improve on anything. Heck, throw in Tanner Scott's bouts of wildness again and who has become better or more consistent? I just see a lot of failure of our young prospects at the major league level this year.

Hays is a talented young man, but unfortunately his body can't hold up to the rigors of being a professional baseball player. I actually feel bad for him because he's a hard nosed, hard working talented player, but no way this organization can ever count on him holding up for 145+ games a season. Similar to Harvey, and also to Yusniel Diaz, there are just some guys who's bodies can't hold up. It's unfortunate because he's a guy this organization needed to hit on. Right now, there is no impact outfielders in the system playing right now. Kjerstad has the promise to be, but we all know that's a big question mark right now. Stowers is off to a nice start in Aberdeen, but again, I don't see impact guy. Elias needs to focus his international search on impact outfielders, preferably center fielder or RF types with some pop and speed.

I think this is a good recap of the Elias trades from the players who were traded perspective. One of things that hurt Elias was COVID that wiped out the minor league season so we only have a small sample size of the prospects that he got back. Of that sample size, I have him adding two top 10 prospects in Bradish and Vavre and there are some other guys that have some potential, particularly the young pitchers acquired in the Angels trades.

So you are telling us Hays may not be available because of a sore hamstring? Weird, he's such an ironman. I'm sure the Orioles will just start Wilkerson out there. Can't have enough outfielders who dive 8 feet short of a ball. Ok, enough sarcasm (might as well smile at this train wreck than despair), Wilkerson and Valaika have enough versatility that it's ok to be short a few games but if if we're looking at 5-6 days, they probably need to option a pitcher like Akin once McKenna is available to be recalled.

First, I'd like to apologize for the unhinged person who decided to spew hatred on the board before we could get to the posts. I want to thank @Frobby for texting me about the threads as I was driving home from Florida after helping my parents move back to Maryland. I also want to thank @Snutchy for taking time away from his daughters lacrosse game by getting to his phone and attempting to delete the drivel and then thanks to @sbauer for stepping in and deleting this fool like it never existed. There is a special kind of evil, hateful people that exist to do nothing but spew hatred online. We are investigating this incident through our forensic abilities, but if anyone has information on the perpetrator, I will provide a reward for information that enables us to identify this sick individual. Thanks to you the community for reporting the posts, we appreciate you helping us police the board and to keep our community a special place.

Updated as of May 24th..

They might as well give it a try. It's hard to go 2-13. It takes a special kind of suckitude to lose that often over a 15 games stretch.

After another ho hum loss today, the Orioles are now 2-13 since John Means ' no-hitter. So much for a boost.